Editing Mail-order bride (section)

===United States===
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U.S. immigration law provides protection for brides once they arrive. "In 1996, Congress passed the Illegal Immigration Reform and Responsibility Act... Section 652 of this legislation specifically addresses the mail-order bride industry".<ref name="Order Bride Case Study 2010">"Russian Mail Order Bride Case Study." Welcome to American University, Washington, DC USA. Web. 10 October 2010.</ref>

On 6 January 2006, President [[George W. Bush]] signed the [[International Marriage Broker Regulation Act]] (IMBRA) as part of the [[Violence Against Women Act]].<ref>[http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=h109-3402 "Violence against women"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120204043909/http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=h109-3402 |date=4 February 2012 }}, 109th U.S. Congress (2005–2006)</ref>
In enacting IMBRA, Congress was responding to claims by the [[Tahirih Justice Center]] (TJC), a woman's advocacy group, that mail-order brides were susceptible to domestic abuse because they are unfamiliar with the laws, language and customs of their new home. The TJC insisted that special legislation was needed to protect them.<ref>[http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/07/05/politics/main561828.shtml "Mail Order Bride in Works"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060615130356/http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/07/05/politics/main561828.shtml |date=15 June 2006}}, CBS News 5 July 2003</ref> The TJC asked Congress to consider several notable cases mentioned in the [[Congressional Record]]. Critics of IMBRA claim that the TJC failed to ask Congress to consider the relative amount of abuse between mail-order bride couples and other couples (including the thousands of spousal murders that occurred in the US over the past 15 years).

Two federal lawsuits (''European Connections & Tours v. Gonzales'', N.D. Ga. 2006; ''AODA v. Gonzales'', S.D. Ohio 2006) sought to challenge IMBRA on constitutional grounds. The AODA case was terminated when the plaintiffs withdrew their claim. The European Connections case ended when the judge ruled against the plaintiff, finding the law constitutional regarding a dating company.

On 26 March 2007, U.S. District Judge [[Clarence Cooper (judge)|Clarence Cooper]] dismissed with [[prejudice (legal term)|prejudice]] a suit for injunctive relief filed by European Connections, agreeing with Attorney General [[Alberto Gonzales]] and TJC that IMBRA is a constitutional exercise of Congressional authority to regulate for-profit dating websites and agencies where the primary focus is on introducing Americans to foreigners. Additionally, the federal court specifically found that: "the rates of domestic violence against immigrant women are much higher than those of the U.S. population". According to a compilation of disaggregated samples of Asian ethnicities from local communities, Asian women in the United States reported intimate physical and/or sexual violence of 21 to 55 percent in 2015.<ref>{{Cite web |date=26 October 2020 |title=Facts & Stats Report: Domestic Violence in Asian and Pacific Islander Homes, 2020 |url=https://www.api-gbv.org/resources/facts-stats-dv-api-homes/ |access-date=2022-07-13 |website=Asian Pacific Institute on Gender Based Violence Website |language=en-US}}</ref> The judge also compared background checks on American men to background checks on [[firearm]] buyers by stating, "However, just as the requirement to provide background information as a prerequisite to purchasing a firearm has not put gun manufacturers out of business, there is no reason to believe that IMBs will be driven from the marketplace by IMBRA".

====Legal issues====
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Marriage agencies are legal in almost all countries. On 6 January 2006, the United States Congress enacted [[IMBRA]],<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=h109-3402|title=Violence Against Women and Department of Justice Reauthorization Act of 2005 (2006; 109th Congress H.R. 3402) – GovTrack.us|work=GovTrack.us|access-date=8 May 2015|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120204043909/http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=h109-3402|archive-date=4 February 2012}}</ref> which requires certain actions of some businesses prior to selling a foreign woman's address to a US citizen or resident or otherwise facilitating contact, including the following:
*The man must complete a questionnaire on his criminal and marital background
*The business must obtain the man's record from the [[United States National Sex Offenders Public Registry]] database<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.nsopr.gov/|title=United States Department of Justice National Sex Offender Public Website|author=NSOPW|access-date=8 May 2015|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140505234611/http://www.nsopr.gov/|archive-date=5 May 2014}}</ref>
*The questionnaire and record must be translated into the woman's native language and provided to her
*The woman must certify that she agrees to permit communication
*A lifetime limit of two [[K-1 visa]]s is imposed, with a waiver required for the approval of any subsequent fiancée visa

=====Visa regulations=====
To bring a spouse into the United States, Form I-130 must be filed, which is an immigrant petition on behalf of a relative. After that, a K-3/K-4 & V-1/V-2 Entry Visa for Spouse must be filed.<ref>"Apply for Green Card Through Marriage." Apply for US Immigration Services: USCIS, Green Card, US Citizenship, US Visas, Forms. Immigration Direct, 2007–2010. Web. 12 November 2010.</ref> The Immigration and Nationalization Service advises that "in some cases, it may be to a couple's advantage to pursue a [[K visa|K-1 fiancée visa]] before getting married. In other cases, applicants may find that it is more cost effective to get married abroad and then apply for an immigrant visa overseas. In many cases, the K-1 visa application process takes just as long as the immigrant visa process". The cost of the visa may be around $2000.<ref>{{Cite web | url=https://brightbrides.org/blog/how-to-get-a-visa-for-a-foreign-wife | title=How To Get A Visa For A Foreign Wife| date=17 May 2020}}</ref>{{Unreliable source?|date=June 2023}} Couples must remain together at least two years. There were 849,000 female naturalized citizens between the ages of 20 and 29 and 2,084,000 women of the same age living without U.S. citizenship in 2016, accounting for 13.3% of the female population of that age bracket.<ref>{{Cite web | url=https://www.census.gov/topics/population/foreign-born/data/tables.2016.html | title=Foreign Born Data Tables}}</ref> "Despite well over 2,000 mail-order marriages a year, there is no information on the amount of mail-order brides entering the United States. The purpose of this law is two-fold: to protect the safety of mail-order brides and to prevent fraud".<ref name="Order Bride Case Study 2010" />